Powered dragster having lateral stability coacting with track

ABSTRACT

A powered toy vehicle resembling a high performance dragster racing machine both as to appearance and as to performance utilizes a trailing member which contacts the running surface and registers with the sidewalls of a vehicle track to provide lateral stability to the vehicle when its front wheels rise above the running surface.

United States Patent Torrance, Calif. 90505 Filed: Dec. 20, 1971 App1.No.: 209,794

[ 56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,834,608 5/1958 Wixson280/150 A Buck et al. 1 Sept. 11, 1973 [54] POWERED DRAGSTER HAVINGLATERAL 3,6l1,630 5/1970 Adickes et al. 46/221 X STABILITY COACTING WITHTRACK 3,594,949 7/1971 Tam 46/202 3,474,566 10/1969 Cagan et al 6.46/206 [76] Inventors: Gordon 11. Buck, 3784 Newton St.,

Torrance, Calif, 90505; Joseph H, FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Bales,9922 Garre Cir., Hunting n 217,576 10/1924 Great Britain 46/21 1 Beach,Calif. 92646; Brian S. 165,966 7/1921 Great Britain.. 46/206 Prodger,5002 Newton St., 666,984 9/1964 Italy 280/150 C Primary ExaminerF. BarryShay Attorney-Seymour A. Scholnick et al.

ABSTRACT 6 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEBSHF I I875 SHEET 1 0F 2 \NA U R kw $\L\ w w w M mm WY .9 u um WK 1 M mm m a mm F 8 Q, i A. fin k dmu MN M. s R M PATENIEDSEPF 1 m3 3. 757. 459

SHEET 2 0F 2 rs/oi d/IZA POWERED DRAGSTER HAVING LATERAL STABILITYCOACTING WITH TRACK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The background of theinvention will be set forth in two parts.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention pertains generally to thefield of toys and more particularly to simulated high performance racingcar toys having relatively high torque producing, self-contained motors.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART It is well known in the toy industry thattoys which are realistic counterparts of actual devices, vehicles,objects, animals or human beings, hold much more attention and providemore entertainment for children and adjults than do toys which are notso designed. Accordingly, it is generally found that in the area of toyvehicles, for example, the more closely the toy resembles a well-knowntype of actual operational vehicle, the more demand there will be forthe toy.

There have been many, not often appreciated, problems associated withthe fabrication of these realistic toys. This has especially been foundto be true for replicas of high performance racing vehicles. Thisproblem obtains because all parameters of these full-size machinescannot be practically scaled down as easily as their overall dimensionsand shapes. For example, the weight-to-volume ratio cannot generally beso scaled. Another very important feature is the fact that the fullsizedvehicle is operated by a driver, while the toy resembling the samevehicle is operatorless. Thus, where a racing driver has continuouscontrol over steering and power application, the operator of this typeof toy does not, and such vehicles tend to easily lose directionalcontrol.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the foregoing factors and conditionscharacteristic of this art, it is a primary object of the presentinvention to provide a new and improved toy not subject to thedisadvantages enumerated above.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a toy resembling ahigh performance dragster capable of simulating the high accelerationcharacteristics of such actual racing machines.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide aneconomical to fabricate miniature vehicle toy incorporating meansproducing lateral stability on either a broad flat surface or onconventional elongate track with upstanding side walls.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a rugged,highly-powered toy vehicle which may controllaby be made to simulate ahigh performance sprint-type racing vehicle doing what are commonlycalled wheelies.

According to the present invention, a toy resembling a high performancedragster vehicle for use on a relatively flat running surface includes atoy vehicle body with suspension and wheel assemblies, the bodyresembling a dragster racing car and the wheel assemblies including apair of front wheels at the front portion of the body and a pair ofdriven wheels supporting the rear portion thereof. The body carriesmotor means including a coupling arrangement operatively coupling torquedeveloped by the motor means to the driven wheels, the torque applied tothe driven wheels tending to cause the front wheels to rise above andlose contact with the running surface. Affixed to the rear portion ofthe body is lateral stability means for contacting the running surfaceonly when the front wheels leave the surface and thereby tending toreturn the front wheels to the running surface.

The lateral stability means may include an arm pivotally attached at itsupper end to the rear of the toy's body, and the leg may include atransverse arm portion registering between the sidewalls of the track toprovide lateral stability during the period of time the front wheels arenot in contact with the running surface.

The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel areset forth with particularity in the appended claims. The presentinvention, both as to its organization and manner of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood bymaking reference to the following description, taken in accordance withthe accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer tolike elements in the several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a side elevational view insection of an embodiment of the present invention, with the front wheelsin contact with the running surface;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, partially broken away, showing thevehicle of FIG. 1 accelerating and the front wheels rising above therunning surface;

FIG. 3 is a sectional illustration of the toy of FIG. 1 taken along line3-3;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the toy taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional illustration taken along line 55 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a lateral stability member or legattached to the rear of the vehicle shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 7 is a perspective illustration of a detachable weight inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view in section of the front portion of thetoy vehicle utilizing the weighted member of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT:

Referring again to the drawings and more particularly to the toy vehicleshown in FIG. 1 and herein generally identified by reference 11, thereis shown a toy vehicle body 13 having a front portion 15 and a rearportion 17. The body 13 generally resembles a high performance dragstervehicle and is assembled using separately fabricated componentsincluding a lower body portion or chassis 19, an upper body portion 21,and a simulated high performance engine 23 positioned on the upper bodyportion 21.

These components may be fabricated from any suitable materials such as aplastic material or a lightweight metal and may be formed in any desiredshape using conventional techniques such as vacuum molding, casting,etc. The upper body portion 21 is shown having depending spacing columns25 to support the portion 21 above the chassis 19. The body portion andthe chassis are bonded together along their length by sonic welding oran adhesive. This strengthens the assembly against front end impact. Thesimulated engine 23 is held in place by a vertically disposed screw orrivet 27 extending through apertures 29, 31, and 33, respectively. Moreimportantly, the rivet 27, along with a vertical post 35 extending downinto the aperture 31 in the body member 13, serves to help the vehiclesbody to support leverage forces placed thereon by an enclosed springmotor, to be later described.

Front wheels 37 of the vehicle are freely rotatably mounted on axleelements or drive screws 39 extending horizontally from a frontsuspension member 41 integrally formed with the upper body portion 21 ofthe toy vehicle body 13 (see FIG. 4). Located in the rear portion 17 ofthe toy 11 are a pair of relatively larger driven wheels 43 fixedlyattached to a rotatable drive shaft 45, best viewed in FIG. 3. Thewheels 43 preferably are fitted with flat ring-like resilient members 47of a material such as rubber, for example, to resemble racing slicksgenerally used on such dragster machines.

Affixed to the drive shaft 45 is a relatively small drive pinion 49. Thepinion is positioned within the body 13 and the shaft extends throughthe body at holes 51 which act as bearings. Meshably engaged with thepinion 49 is a relatively larger first intermediate gear 53 fixedlymounted on a shaft 55, this shaft also holding a second intermediategear 57 that is somewhat smaller than the gear 53. The intermediate gearshaft 55 is supported in inclined elongated slots 59 in the inner wallof the body 13, the function of which will be described in detail later.The gear 57 is positioned to mesh at all times with a relatively largemotor output gear 61 rigidly mounted on a motor shaft 63.

The wheels 43 are driven by a spring-type mechanical motor 64 whichincludes a spool or drum 65 coaxially fixed to the shaft 63 so as torotate with it and with the gear 61. One end of a cord 67 is attached tothe outer surface 69 of the drum and is wound thereabout between thegear 61 and an annular end plate 70. Also attached to the drum 65 is oneend of a spiral spring 71 that is wound about the shaft 63 and isanchored at its other end to body 13.

The motor 64 is energized by grasping a ring 72 attached to the cord 67and pulling the cord in the direction indicated by arrow 73 relative tothe toy 11, as shown in FIG. 1. This action rotates the drum 65 in thedirection 75, and at the same time, rotates the shaft 63, the motoroutput gear 61, and winds up the spring 71. As the gear 61 rotates, itcauses the second intermediate gear 57 to move in the direction shown byarrow 77 and also causes the intermediate shaft 55 to rise in the slot59 so that the first intermediate gear 53 leaves engagement with thedrive pinion 49. Once the spring 71 is sufficiently wound about theshaft 63, the cord 67 is released. This allows the spring to exert arotational force on the shaft, turning the drum 6S and the gear 61 inthe direction indicated by the arrow 79 in FIG. 2. The intermediategears 53 and 57 are caused to rotate in the opposite direction 81 andtheir shaft 55 is forced downwardly in the slot 59 so that the drivepinion 45 is engaged and rotates in the direction of arrow 83. Thisaction, of course, rotates the driven wheels 43 in a direction toaccelerate the toy 11 forward. It will be also noticed that the rotationof the drum 65, as the spring 71 unwinds, causes the cord 67 to'bepulled in the direction 84 and wound about the drums outer surface 69 sothat the winding process may be repeated.

The toy vehicle 11 is preferably operated on a flat surface such as asidewalk or floor 85, for example, but it is particularly adapted to runalong a flat elongate track such as herein identified by numeral 86. Thetrack 86 has a relatively flat surface 87 along which the wheels 37 and43 of the toy travel. The track may be fabricated from any materialgenerally considered suitable for this application, such as a flexibleplastic material, for example, and any conventional process such as anextruding process may be used. The track 86 is also provided withupstanding vehicle retaining sidewalls 89 along the sides of the runningsurface 87. This type of track generally is manufactured in linearsections with appropriate means for connecting a number of such tracksections end-to-end. In the case of track 86, a lower surface 91includes a pair of identical longitudinally extending L-shaped sections93 which define a relatively narrow but broad channel 95 adapted toaccept flat elongate channel engaging tabs, not shown. A more detaileddescription of the track sections and their channel engaging tabs may beobtained by referring to US. Pat. No. 3,487,999 which is assigned to theassignee of the present invention.

As noted previously, the realistic operation and appearance of a toyvehicle are significant factors in the marketing of this type toy. Thelatter aspect has been accomplished by the design of the toy 11 asillustrated in the drawings. As to the toys realistic operation andperformance, the motor 64 provides an amount of torque to the drivenwheels 43, through the gearing arrangement, to cause the toy to pivotabout the drive shaft 49, as indicated by arrow 97, and thereby raisethe front portion 15 of the vehicle and lift the toy's front wheels 37from the running surface 87. This action closely resembles the operationof full sized dragsters at initial acceleration. However, in a toy ithas been found that due to the difference in such factors asfriction-to-weight ratios and other factors preventing a toy replicafrom operating exactly as its model, it is highly desirable to providecompensating elements which help cure the problem while not detractingfrom the toys appearance or performance.

One such serious problem is the tendency of a high performance toy tolose lateral stability when its front wheels leave the running surface.In other words, it has been found that when such vehicles do wheeliesthere is a tendency for one of the driven wheels to have a differenttraction characteristic than the other wheel and to thereby cause thetoy to veer to one side or the other or to even spin. In accordance withthe invention, this problem has been solved by utilizing a lateralstability member or leg 101 extending generally downwardly from the rearof the toy vehicle.

As best viewed in FIGS. 5 and 6, the leg 101 roughly resembles theletter H with side portions 103, a cross brace 105, upper journals 107,and lower guide arms 109. The journals 107 are cylindrical and extendhorizontally in the same plane with and parallel to the cylindricalguide arms 109. The leg 101 may be rigidly affixed to the rear of thetoy 11 and extend downwardly at a predetermined angle to a point abovethe running surface 87 so that the arm 109 will not contact this planeuntil the front wheels leave the surface. However, in accordance withthe presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the journals 107are pivotally held in associated horizontally disposed cup bearings 111integrally molded in the inner wall of the rear body portion 17. The legmember 101 extends through an opening 113 in the rear of the vehicle 11,which opening acts to restrict the degree of rotation the leg maytraverse. For example, when all the wheels of the toy are in contactwith the running surface 87, the member 101 may be nearly vertical andextend toward but not contact the surface 87.

Upon the motor 64 being energized and the vehicle released, the toy willtend to perform a wheelie and thus rotate in the direction 97. Thissequential action is illustrated in FIG. 2 where a first dashed outline115 indicates the position of the toy prior to rotation; a second dashedline 117 indicating the first contact of the trailing leg member 101with the surface 87; and maximum rotation of the toy, as limited by theleg 101 engaging the upper edge of the opening 113, is shown by thesolid outline.

The trailing leg 101 may be of molded plastic, or, if additional weightis desired at the rear of the toy, this component may be fabricated fromany suitable metal or metal alloy. The leg, upon contacting the runningsurface, tends to cause the front end of the vehicle to descend to theroadway to again provide lateral stability. However, in the meantime,such control is provided by the arm portions 109 which extend parallelto the track surface 87 between the side walls 89. Any tendency for thetoy to move to either side is prevented by one of these arms contactingan adjacent side wall, as best shown in FIG. 5. Thus, it can be seenthat the lateral stability member 101 not only limits the verticalrotation of the toy under acceleration conditions, but also preventslateral instability by tending to cause the front wheels to return tothe track surface and by registering within the tracks side walls.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the forwardportion of the chassis 19 is provided with holes 119 to accommodate apair of bent tabs 121 of an elongate detachable weight member 123, shownin FIGS. 7 and 8. The member 123 is attached below the chassis 19 byfitting an upstanding curved front portion 125 of the weight at thefront end 127 of the toy 11 and by pushing the tabs 121 through theholes 119. The curvature of the front portion 125 generally conformswith the configuration of the vehicles front end to assure reliableattachment of the member 123. The function of the weight is to preventor limit the tendency of the front wheels 37 to leave the runningsurface. Thus, if for any reason it is desired that the toy not dowheelies," the weight member 123 may be easily snapped on to the chassis19.

From the foregoing, it should be evident that there has herein beendescribed a very entertaining, new and novel powered vehicle toy whichclosely resembles, both in appearance and operation, very popular dragstrip racing machines, and which overcomes the disadvantages of theprior art.

Although only a limited number of embodiments of the invention have beendescribed in detail, it should be understood that other embodiments andvariations are possible within the scope of the invention. For example,the vehicle may take the form of a three wheeled tricycle. Accordingly,it is intended that the foregoing disclosure and drawings shall beconsidered only as illustrations of the principles of this invention.

We claim:

1. A toy including a vehicle resembling a high performance dragstervehicle in combination with a flat elongate track with an upper runningsurface and upstanding sidewalls, comprising:

a toy vehicle having a body and wheel assemblies, said body resembling adragster racing car, said wheel assemblies including at least one wheelat the front portion of said body and a pair of driven wheels supportingthe rear portion of said body;

motor means carried by said body, said means including a couplingarrangement operatively coupling torque developed by said means to saiddriven wheels, said motor means being capable of delivering an amount oftorque to said driven wheels to cause said front wheel to rise above andlose contact with said running surface when the vehicle is supportedthereon with said track and vehicle in generally horizontal position;and

means for cooperating with said track to produce lateral stability ofsaid vehicle afiixed to said rear portion of said body for contactingsaid running surface only when said front wheel leaves said surface tolimit the height to which said front wheel rises and tending to returnsaid front wheel to said running surface, said stability meanscomprising a generally downwardly extending leg pivotally mounted at itsupper end to said body.

2. A toy according to claim 1, wherein said leg in cludes a horizontallyextending portion disposed adjacent its lower end and having a lengthdimension transversally of the longitudinal dimension of said bodyapproximately that of the width of said running surface of said trackbetween said sidewalls.

3. A toy according to claim 1, wherein said lateral stability meansincludes means for restricting the pivotal movement of said leg relativeto said body to limit the distance said front wheel may rise above saidrunning surface. f

4. A' toy according to claim 1 wherein said motor means is disposedrearwardly of said driven wheels.

5. A toy according to claim 1, including a weight member detachablymounted on said front portion of said body.

6. A toy according to claim I, wherein said front wheel is relativelysmaller than said driven wheels, said driven wheels each including aflat rubber ring disposed about its periphery simulating racing slicks.

1. A toy including a vehicle resembling a high performance dragstervehicle in combination with a flat elongate track with an upper runningsurface and upstanding sidewalls, comprising: a toy vehicle having abody and wheel assemblies, said body resembling a dragster racing car,said wheel assemblies including at least one wheel at the front portionof said body and a pair of driven wheels supporting the rear portion ofsaid body; motor means carried by said body, said means including acoupling arrangement operatively coupling torque developed by said meansto said driven wheels, said motor means being capable of delivering anamount of torque to said driven wheels to cause said front wheel to riseabove and lose contact with said running surface when the vehicle issupported thereon with said track and vehicle in generally horizontalposition; and means for cooperating with said track to produce lateralstability of said vehicle affixed to said rear portion of said body forcontacting said running surface only when said front wheel leaves saidsurface to limit the height to which said front wheel rises and tendingto return said front wheel to said running surface, said stability meanscomprising a generally downwardly extending leg pivotally mounted at itsupper end to said body.
 2. A toy according to claim 1, wherein said legincludes a horizontally extending portion disposed adjacent its lowerend and having a length dimension transversally of the longitudinaldimension of said body approximately that of the width of said runningsurface of said track between said sidewalls.
 3. A toy according toclaim 1, wherein said lateral stability means includes means forrestricting the pivotal movement of said leg relative to said body tolimit the distance said front wheel may rise above said running surface.4. A toy according to claim 1 wherein said motor means is disposedrearwardly of said driven wheels.
 5. A toy according to claim 1,including a weight member Detachably mounted on said front portion ofsaid body.
 6. A toy according to claim 1, wherein said front wheel isrelatively smaller than said driven wheels, said driven wheels eachincluding a flat rubber ring disposed about its periphery simulatingracing slicks.